ILLUSTRATIONS 


VIVISECTION; 


EXPERIMENTS  ON  LIVING  ANIMALS. 


FROM    THE    WORKS    OF 


PHYSIOLOGISTS, 


LECONS  DE  PHYSIOLOGIE  OPERATOIRE  (OPERATIVE  PHYSIOLOGY). 

By  Claude  Bernard. 

LECONS  SUR  LA  CHALEUR  ANIMALE.    By  Claude  Bernard. 
LA  PRESSION  BAROMETRIQUE.    By  Paul  Bert,  Paris,  1878. 

AS    REPRODUCED    IN 

"BERNARD'S  MARTYRS"  and  "LIGHT  IN  DARK  PLACES." 

By   MISS  FRANCES  POWER  COBBE. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

AMERICAN  SOCIETY  FOR  THE  RESTRICTION  OF  VIVISECTION, 

No.  1706  Chestnut  Street. 

1887. 


1 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


VIVISECTION; 


EXPERIMENTS  ON  LIVING  ANIMALS, 


FROM    THE    WORKS    OF 

PHYSIOLOGISTS, 

NAMELY, 

LECONS  DE  PHYSIOLOGIE  OPERATOIRE  (OPERATIVE  PHYSIOLOGY). 

By  Claude  Bernard. 

LECONS  SUR  LA  CHALEUR  ANIMALE.    By  Claude  Bernard. 
LA  PRESSION  BAROMETRIQUE.    By  Paul  Bert,  Paris,  1878. 

AS    REPRODUCED    IN 

"BERNARD'S  MARTYRS " and " LIGHT  IN  DARK  PLACES." 

By  MISS  FRANCES  POWER  COBBE. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
AMERICAN  SOCIETY  FOR  THE  RESTRICTION  OF  VIVISECTION, 

No.  1706  Chestnut  Street. 
1887. 


DO  NOT  REFUSE  TO  LOOK  AT  THESE  PICTURES. 

IF  YOU  CANNOT   BEAR  TO   LOOK  AT  THEM,  WHAT   MUST  THE 

SUFFERING  BE  TO  THE  ANIMALS  WHO  UNDERGO 

THE  CRUELTIES  THEY  REPRESENT? 


"  These  animals  are  entirely  at  our  mercy.  They  are  dumb  and  power- 
less to  resist.  There  is  no  kind  of  brutality  that  we  cannot,  at  our 
pleasure,  inflict  upon  them."  Then,  how  base  is  it  to  take  advantage  of 
their  unprotected  condition,  and  torture  them  in  such  a  manner.  Is  not 
the  idea  repulsive  to  every  generous  mind  ? 

"Better  I  or  my  friend  should  die,"  says  Professor  Henry  J.  Bigelow, 
"  than  protract  existence  through  accumulated  years  of  torture  upon 
animals  whose  exquisite  suffering  we  cannot  fail  to  infer,  even  though 
they  may  have  neither  voice  nor  feature  to  express  it." 


FROM 

BERNARD'S  MARTYRS. 


A  COMMENT  ON  CLAUDE  BERNARDS  PHYSIOLOGIE  OPERATOIRE. 


"  This  book  will,  it  is  hoped,  convey  to  all  its  readers  the  fact  which  the 
opponents  of  vivisection  have  long  been  laboring  to  convey,  namely  : 
that  the  practice,  as  it  now  exists,  is  very  seldom  the  occasional  re- 
source of  the  practical  surgeon,  or  even  of  the  puzzled  physiologist  (like 
Sir  Charles  Bell),  who  desires  to  solve  once  in  a  way  some  knotty  and 
important  problem  by  a  most  carefully  prepared  experiment  never  to 
be  needlessly  repeated.  It  is,  on  the  contrary,  ^profession — a  regular 
and  independent  business — to  which  men  devote  themselves  with  ardor 
and  ambition,  and  pursue  in  as  orderly  a  manner,  week  after  week  and 
year  after  year,  as  any  other  trade,  till  many  of  them  might  boast  that 
they  have  slaughtered  more  animals  than  the  most  experienced  butcher 
jn  the  shambles.  Modern  vivisection  may  be  defined,  in  short,  to  be  the 
limitless  invention,  performance  and  repetition,  by  scores  of  inquirers, 
of  every  kind  and  sort  of  operation  on  every  portion  of  the  living  frames 
of  animals,  and  pre-eminently  of  the  most  sensitive  animals.  Brains, 
nerves,  eyes,  hearts,  veins,  intestines,  bones,  limbs  and  skin — nothing 
escapes,  and  no  part  fails  to  afford  a  practically  boundless  field  for  the 
ingenuity  of  the  physiologist ;  or  if  the  imagination  of  one  ever  flags, 
it  is  soon  stimulated  into  double  activity  to  disprove  the  boasted  dis- 
coveries of  another." 

"  We  stand,  in  truth,  face  to  face  with  a  new  vice — new,  at  least,  in  its 
vast  modern  development,  and  the  passion  wherewith  it  is  pursued — the 
Vice  of  Scientific  Cruelty.  It  is  not  the  old  vice  of  cruelty  for  cruelty"1 's 
sake;  of  that  even  the  worst  physiologist  may  probably  be  acquitted. 
It  is,  in  strict  ethical  definition,  the  fault  of  indifference  to  a  great  moral 
consideration  (namely,  that  of  the  sufferings  caused  by  our  actions)  raised 
to  the  rank  of  a  vice  by  the  enormous  extent  to  which  it  is  carried. 
The  Yivisector  ought  to  be  stopped  in  pursuing  his  (otherwise)  lawful 
end  of  advancing  physiological  science,  by  the  consideration  that  his 
means  of  advancing  it  involve  a  moral  offence,  (theologically  viewed 
the  sin)  of  causing  torture  worse  than  death  to  guiltless  creatures. 
This  consideration,  as  has  been  said,  ought  to  stop  him,  just  as  any  other 
man  ought  to  be  stopped  in  pursuing  any  legitimate  end  (e.  g.,  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  interests  of  his  country  or  family),  if  he  find  he  can- 
not carry  it  out  without  employing  immoral  means,  deceit,  robbery, 
persecution,  treachery  or  any  other  unrighteous  mode  of  action." 

Frances  Power  Cobbe. 
4 


"  That  the  dominion  of  man  over  the  lower  world  is  a  moral  trust,  is  a 
proposition  which  no  man  living  can  deny." — Lord  Erskine. 


Fioni  La  Prtttion  Baromelrique,  by  Paul  Bert. 


"I  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  my  horror  at  the  amount  of  torture 
Dr.  Brachet  inflicted.  I  hardly  think  ktiowledge  is  worth  having  at  such 
a  purchase." — John  Elliotson,  m.d.,  f.tc.s. 


From  Cyon's  Atlas. 

This  illustration  represents  the  head  of  a  rabbit,  of  which  the  top 
of   the  skull  is  removed  to  show  the  position  of  the  nerves,  and  the 


instrument  is  exhibited  piercing  the  head  and  reaching  the  nerve  (the 
trigeminus)  on  which  it  is  desired  to  operate.  The  description  given 
by  Cyon  of  the  method  of  operation  (Methodik,  p.  510)  is  as  follows  : 
"  The  rabbit  is  firmly  fastened  to  the  ordinary  vivisecting  table  by 
means  of  Czermak's  holder.  Then  the  rabbit's  head  is  held  by  the 
left  hand,  so  that  the  thumb  of  that  hand  rests  on  the  condyle  of  the 
lower  jaw.  This  is  used  as  a  point  cPappui  for  the  insertion  of  the 
knife.  .  .  To  reach  the  hollow  of  the  temple  the  instrument  must  be 
guided  forward  and  upward,  thus  avoiding  the  hard  portion  of  the  tem- 
poral bone,  and  leading  the  knife  directly  into  the  cranial  cavity.  .  . 
The  trigeminus  then  comes  under  the  knife.  Now  holding  the  head  of 
the  animal  very  firmly,  the  blade  of  the  knife  is  directed  backwards 
and  downwards  and  pressed  hard  in  this  direction  against  the  base  of  the 
skull.  The  nerve  is  then  generally  cut  behind  the  Gasserian  ganglion, 
which  is  announced  by  a  violent  cry  of  agony  (einen  heftigen  Schmer- 
zensschrei)  of  the  animal." 


Cyon.    Table  XXII. 
Ludwig's  machine  for  measuring  the  rate  of  the  blood-current  in  arteries  of  rabbits. 


8 

"For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  believe  that  Providence  should  intend 
that  the  secrets  of  nature  are  to  be  discovered  by  means  of  cruelty,  and 
I  am  sure  that  those  who  are  guilty  of  protracted  cruelties  do  not 
possess  minds  capable  of  appreciating  the  laws  of  nature.  Experiments 
have  never  been  the  means  of  discovery,  and  a  survey  of  what  has 
been  attempted  of  late  years  in  physiology  will  prove  that  the  opening 
of  living  animals  has  done  more  to  perpetuate  error  than  to  confirm  the 
just  views  taken  from  the  study  of  anatomy  and  the  natural  motions." — 
Sir  Charles  Bell,  f.r.c.s. 


Cyon.    Table  VII. 


The  above  illustration  represents  an  instrument  very  frequently  men- 
tioned in  these  works:  Czermak's  Rabbit-holder, with  the  rabbit's  head 
fixed  in  it,  and  the  nerves  of  the  neck  dissected  out.  This  illustration, 
as  well  as  several  subsequent  ones,  is  taken  from  M.  de  Cyon's  splendid 
volume,  the  Methodik  der  physiologischen  experimente  und  vivisectionen, 
with  Atlas  (Giessen,  St.  Petersburg,  1876). 


9 

"  How  few  facts  of  immediate  considerable  value  to  our  race  have  of 
late  years  been  extorted  from  the  dreadful  sufferings  of  dumb  animals, 
the  cold-blooded  cruelties  now  more  and  more  practised  under  the 
authority  of  Science ! 

"  The  reaction  which  follows  every  excess  will  in  time  bear  indignantly 
upon  this.  Until  then,  it  is  dreadful  to  think  how  many  poor  animals 
will  be  subjected  to  excruciating  agony,  as  one  medical  college  after 
another  becomes  penetrated  with  the  idea  that  vivisection  is  a  part  of 
modern  teaching,  and  that,  to  hold  way  with  other  institutions,  they, 
too,  must  have  their  vivisector,  their  mutilated  dogs,  their  Guinea-pigs, 
their  rabbits,  their  chamber  of  torture  and  of  horrors  to  advertise  as  a 
laboratory." — Henry  J.  Bigelow,  m.d.,  Professor  of  Surgery  in  Har- 
vard College. 


From  Bernard's  Physioloyie  Operaloire,  p.  137. 


10 

Lawson  Tait,  one  of  the  most  eminent  living  surgeons,  says  in  an  ad- 
dress :  "  In  1872  or  1873  I  was  the  witness  of  an  experiment  which 
thrilled  me  with  horror,  which  I  have  never  related  in  detail,  and  con- 
cerning the  sight  of  which  I  shall  preserve  silence.  I  am,  however, 
bound  to  say  that  I  left  the  room  with  the  feeling  that  if  such  things  were 
to  be  done  in  the  pursuit  of  science,  I  should  like  to  part  company  with 
her." 


ES2?3> 


"  M.  de  Cyon  in  his  article  in  the  Contemporary  Review,  April,  1883, 
mentions  this  drawing  (which  was  one  of  those  exhibited  life-size  on  the 
hoardings  of  London  in  1877),  and  asserts  that  it  was  drawn  from  the 
dead  body  of  the  animal.     It  may  be  possible  that  the  actual  dog  from 


11 

which  M.  cle  Cyon  made  his  sketch  was  at  that  moment  no  longer  living, 
but  that  the  hideous  mutilations  exhibited  in  the  drawing  had  been  in- 
flicted while  he  was  still  living  is  proved  by  two  circumstances  :  one  by 
the  presence  of  the  elaborate  muzzle,  which  assuredly  no  one  would 
have  placed  on  the  corpse  of  a  dog,  and  secondly,  by  the  presence  of 
the  cannula  fixed  into  the  duct  of  the  salivary  gland, — a  gland  which,  of 
course,  like  any  other,  ceases  lo  secrete  at  death,  and  into  which,  there- 
fore, it  is  absurd  to  suppose  a  cannula  would  have  been  inserted  after 
death.  M.  de  Cyon's  assertion  that  the  dog  represented  is  a  dead  one  is 
also  thoroughly  disposed  of  by  an  extract  from  his  own  book  quoted  in 
an  excellent  letter  by  Mr.  Ernest  Bell,  published  in  the  Spectator,  April 
7th,  1SS3.     Speaking  of  the  plates  in  M.  Cyon's  work— 

"When  he  tells  us  that  these  plates  are,  '  of  course,  drawn  from  the 
dead  body  of  the  animals,'  he  probably  is  speaking  the  literal  truth  as 
regards  the  plates,  but  in  as  far  as  he  wishes  us  to  infer  that  the  opera- 
tions they  represent  were  done  on  the  dead  body,  he  is  saying  what  his 
books  show  to  be  untrue.  For,  concerning  one  of  the  plates  (No.  xv), 
I  find  on  p.  li!>l  of  the  work  the  following  paragraph: — 

"  '  If  the  experiment  is  made  only  for  demonstration,  one  can  drug  the 
animal  beforehand  with  chloral,  chloroform,  or  curari;  and  if  the  last- 
named  poison  is  applied,  artificial  respiration  must  be  used.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  one  wishes  to  use  the  experiment  for  purposes  of  observa- 
tion, particularly  if  the  investigation  concerns  the  influence  of  the  circu- 
lation on  the  activity  of  the  glands,  it  is  better  to  avoid  these  drugs,  on 
account  of  their  influence  on  the  circulation.  One  should  choose  for  the 
experiment  strong,  lively  animals,  which  have  been  well-fed  for  a  few 
days  previously.'  " 


"  It  is  said  that  the  use  of  anaesthetics  is  the  means  of  preventing  these 
kinds  of  operations  (experiments  on  the  brains  of  monkeys,  by  David 
Ferrier)  from  causing  pain.  Although  in  the  first  instance  an  animal 
may  be  under  the  influence  of  anaesthetics,  you  cannot  keep  up  a  pro- 
tracted comatose  condition  for  days,  or  weeks,  or  months,  and  therefore 
it  is  perfectly  idle  to  suggest  that  the  horror  of  tbe  operations  is  at  all 
diminished." — Speech  of  the  Hon.  R.  T.  Reid,  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  April,  1883. 


12 

"  Vivisection  has  proved  useless  and  misleading,  and,  in  the  interests  of 
true  science,  its  employment  should  be  stopped,  so  that  the  energy  and 
skill  of  scientific  investigators  should  be  directed  into  better  and  safer 
channels.  I  hail  with  satisfaction  the  rousing  which  is  evident  in  the 
public  mind  upon  this  question,  and  I  feel  confident  that  before  long 
the  alteration  of  opinion,  which  I  have  had  to  confess  in  my  own  case, 
will  spread  widely  amongst  the  members  of  my  useful  profession." — 
Lawson  Tait,  f.r.c.s. 


We  now  come  to  an  illustration  which  will  be  recognized  by  many 
readers — the  first  of  the  two  stoves  invented  and  used  by  Claude 
Bernard.  It  is  taken  from  his  Legons  sur  la  Chaleur  Animate,  Paris, 
1870,  p.  347,  and  represents,  as  Bernard  states,  his  "first  apparatus 
for  the  study  of  the  Mechanism  of  Death  by  Heat."  Of  the  results  of 
experiments  made  with  it  he  prints  several  tables.  These  tables  show 
how  dogs,  pigeons  and  rabbits  baked  in  the  stove,  expired  at  the  tem- 
peratures of  90°  or  100°  Cent,  in  G  minutes,  10  minutes,  2-t  minutes,  etc., 
and  at  higher  temperatures  at  different  intervals ;  and  again  how,  when, 


13 

the  apparatus  formed  a  hot  bath  (i.e.,  the  animal  was  boiled  iustead  of 
baked  alive),  a  different  scale  of  heat  and  subsequent  death  was  observed. 
A  small  dog  placed  in  a  temperature  of  55*  expired  at  8  minutes,  and 
so  on.  Again,  another  series  of  results  were  obtained  when  the  head  of 
the  victim  was  kept  outside  the  stove,  while  its  body  was  baked  or 
boiled.  "The  animals"  (Bernard  notes,  page  3-"><i)  "exhibit  a  series 
of  symptoms  always  the  same  and  characteristic.  At  first  the  creature 
is  a  little  agitated.  Soon  the  respiration  and  circulation  are  quickened. 
The  animal  opens  its  mouth  and  breathes  hard.  Soon  it  becomes  im- 
possible to  count  its  pantings  ;  at  last  it  falls  into  convulsions,  and  dies 
generally  in  uttering  a  cry." 

"In  a  subsequent  table  Bernard  gives  the  particulars  of  the  deaths 
in  this  apparatus  of  seventeen  dogs  and  of  numerous  rabbits  and 
pigeons  ;  and  then  proceeds  in  the  next  lecture  to  show  his  audience  the 
diagram  of  another  and  more  elaborate  stove,  in  which  many  other 
series  of  animals  were  sacrificed." 


"Under  the  heading  of  'Dogs,'  Claude  Bernard  tells  us  that  'By 
reason  of  their  docility  dogs  generally  allow  themselves  to  be  caught  with- 
out resistance.  But  when  they  are  dogs  which  have  strayed  and  been 
brought  to  the  laboratory,  they  are  either  intimidated,  as  in  the  case  of 
sheep-dogs  and  similar  species,  or  they  are  enraged,  defiant,  and  stand- 
ing on  the  defensive,  if  they  belong  to  the  bulldog  kind.  With  such 
animals  certain  precautions  are  necessary  to  secure  them.' 

"  But  if  the  animal  by  reason  of  his  strength  and  fury  cannot  be  se- 
cured, there  is  still  one  extreme  method  which  always  succeeds.  We 
have  only  to  throw  a  running  knot  over  the  dog's  neck,  either  directly  or 
by  the  aid  of  a  long  pole,  and  then  draw  it  tight  either  round  the  leg  of 
a  table  or  by  hanging  it  over  a  door  until  it  be  half  strangled. 

"  In  this  way  the  half-asphyxiated  animal  falls  into  a  state  of  helpless- 
ness and  complete  insensibility,  and  we  must  then  muzzle  him  rapidly 
and  tie  his  forepaws,  with  which  he  will  try  to  get  the  muzzle  off  again. 
The  running  knot  is  then  loosened  and  the  muzzled  and  garroted  animal 
recovers  in  a  few  minutes  "  (page  10S). 

Under  the  head  of  "  Cats  "  we  are  told  that  "  Cats  are  more  terrible 
than  dogs,  inasmuch  as  they  are  armed  with  teeth  and  claws,  while  their 
suppleness  and  agility  make  it  more  difficult  to  secure  them.  It  is,  more- 
over, almost  impossible  to  master  an  enraged  cat,  which  springs  like  a 
tiger  and  tears  everything  he  can  get  his  claws  upon." 

"  Muzzling  a  cat  is  by  no  means  a  simple  operation,  and  for  that  rea- 
son Walter  used  to  sew  the  lips  together  instead." 


14 

"  The  position  of  vivisection  as  a  method  of  scientific  research  stands 
alone  amongst  the  infinite  variety  of  roads  for  the  discovery  of  Nature's 
secrets,  as  being  open  to  strong  prima  facie  objection. 

"  No  one  can  urge  the  slightest  ground  of  objection  against  the  astrono- 
mer, the  chemist,  the  electrician  or  the  geologist  in  their  ways  of  work- 
ing ;  and  the  great  commendation  of  all  other  workers  is  the  comparative 
certainty  of  their  results.  But  for  the  physiologist  working  upon  a 
living  animal  there  are  the  two  strong  objections :  that  he  is  violating  a 
strong  and  widespread  public  sentiment,  and  that  he  tabulates  results  of 
the  most  uncertain. and  often  quite  contradictory, kind." — Lawson  Tait, 
f.r.c  s. 


No.  5.     From  De  Graaf. 


"  To  stop  the  cries  of  the  animals  without  hindering  respiration,  the 
windpipe  is  first  dissected  out  and  then  a  hole  made  into  it.  It  is  then 
raised  up  and  a  large  nail  is  passed  in  across  it  behind,  so  as  to  prevent 
the  blood  from  running  into  the  respiratory  tract."  "  Many  other  phys- 
iologists have  tried,  like  De  Graaf,  to  stifle  the  cries  of  the  animals  in 
order  to  avoid  the  complaints  of  persons  living  in  the  neighborhood  of 
laboratories.  Dupuytren  used  to  cut  the  recurrent  laryngeal  nerves  so 
as  to  render  the  animal  dumb,  and  I  have  often  done  the  same  operation 
for  the  same  purpose,  only  that  I  operated  by  the  subcutaneous  method 
by  a  process  I  shall  describe  elsewhere." — La  Physiologie  Operatoire. 


15 


"Vivisection  is,  to  my  mind,  a  desecration  of  the  highest  objects  to 
which  the  scientific  mind  can  aspire,  to  the  lowest  and  most  barren 
modes  of  inquiry." — George  Macilwain,  f.r.C.s. 


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"  Of  all  those  experiments  none  are  entered  into  at  greater  length,  or 
so  much  excite  a  thrill  of  horror  within  us,  as  those  under  the  head  of 
'  Catheterism  of  the  blood  vessels,'  which  show  how  long  flexible  tubes 
are  inserted  at  some  convenient  part  of  a  superficial  blood  vessel,  and 
then  pushed  along  into  the  different  parts  of  the  heart  and  deeper  blood 
vessels.  Blood  may  thus  be  obtained  from  a  given  part  for  analysis;  or 
the  temperature  may  be  ascertained  in  such  otherwise  inaccessible  re- 
gions. In  these  experiments  there  is  no  pretense  of  giving  anaesthetics; 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact  as  well  as  logic  none  are  given,  for  they  would 
greatly  interfere  with  the  results  when  a  careful  analysis  is  to  be  made 
of  the  blood  so  obtained  from  special  regions,  or  when  it  is  a  question 
of  the  temperature  which  normally  exists  there." 


16 

"Whether  vivisection  is  conducive  to  science,  or  the  reverse,  there  is 
one  great  preliminary  consideration  :  on  what  authority  of  Scripture,  or 
any  other  form  of  revelation,  do  they  (the  vivisectors)  rest  their  right  to 
subject  God's  creatures  to  such  unspeakable  sufferiugs?  "—Speech  of 
Lord  Shaftesbury. 


"Simultaneous  eatheterism  of  the  great  arteries  and  veins  (vence  cavce  and  aorta)  fron  the 
right  femoral  artery  and  vein  by  means  of  sounds  containing  long  thermo-electric  needles. — 
General  conditions  of  the  experiment:  On  the  left  of  the  animal,  fixed  in  the  trough,  are 
represented  the  electric  commutator  and  the  galvanometer,  the  deviation  in  which  indicates 
the  difference  of  temperature  of  the  surrounding  fluids  (arterial  and  venous  blood)  iu  which  the 
tnermo-electric  sounds  are  placed. 


"  To  the  above  description  we  may  add  that  the  jugular  vein  in  the  neck 
of  the  bound-down  and  muzzled  animal  has  first  to  be  carefully  dissected 


17 

out  and  opened  into,  and,  through  the  opening  thus  made,  the  bent  tube 
or  catheter  has  been  inserted  and  pushed  down  through  the  heart  into 
the  great  vein  which  brings  the  blood  from  the  liver  and  hinder  part  of 
the  body. 

"  It  may  be  supposed  that  such  elaborate  apparatus  and  continually  re- 
peated vivisection  have  completely  settled  the  question  as  to  whether 
the  arterial  blood  or  the  venous  blood  was  hottest,  if  indeed  the  question 
was  worth  settling.  That  this  is  far  from  being  the  case  we  have  the 
evidence  of  Bernard  before  us  at  page  402,  where  he  says  :  '  The  ques- 
tion of  the  localization  of  the  source  of  animal  heat  ought  to  be  settled 
by  the  simple  experiment  of  testing  whether  arterial  or  venous  blood  is 
hottest.  "Well,  nothing  is  more  difficult  to  settle  than  this  question. 
After  more  than  half  a  century  of  experiments  physiologists  have  been 
unable  to  come  to  any  agreement  upon  it.  Some  have  declared  that 
arterial  blood  was  hotter  than  venous  blood.  Others,  on  the  contrary 
(and  I  am  one  of  these),  have  found  venous  blood  to  be  hotter  than  arte- 
rial blood  ;  while  a  third  category  of  experimenters,  who  do  not  believe 
in  the  fixity  of  the  phenomena  which  have  their  seats  in  the  animal 
economy,  declare  that  sometimes  the  arterial  blood  is  hottest  and  some- 
times the  venous  blood.' 

"The  illustrations  on  pages  15 and  16,  among  many  others,  sufficiently 
show  the  horrible  conditions  in  which  the  poor  animals  are  placed  when 
subjected  to  such  experiments,  and,  instead  of  repeating  all  the  steps 
to  be  taken  and  the  precautions  necessary,  it  may  prove  quite  sufficient 
to  reproduce  a  literal  translation  of  the  descriptive  text  accompanying 
each  of  the  woodcuts." 


From  La  Physiologie  Operatoire. — Claude  Bernard. 


18 

"  It  is  very  certain  that  the  status  of  the  profession  may  be  lowered  by 
being  associated  in  the  public  mind  with  vivisection.  There  are  already 
signs  of  this,  and  many  medical  men  would  rejoice  to  see  their  profes- 
sion delivered  from  the  opprobrium  that  has  come  upon  it  in  con- 
sequence of  this  practice." — James  Macauley,  m.d.,  f.r.c.s.,  Edin- 
burgh. 


"  Let  us  come,"  says  Paul  Bert  in  his  large  book  on  La  Pression  Baro- 
metrique,  p.  800,  "  to  the  description  of  the  convulsive  attack  (produced 
by  placing  the  victim  for  hours  under  compressed  oxygen).  It  is  really 
curious  and  frightful,     [effrayante.) 

"  Let  us  take  a  case  of  medium  intensity.  When  the  animal  is  taken 
out  of  the  machine  it  is  generally  in  full  tonic  convulsions.  The  four 
paws  are  stiffened,  the  trunk  is  recurved  backward,  the  eyes  are  starting 
from  the  head,  the  jaws  clinched.  Soon  there  is  a  sort  of  loosening  to 
which  succeeds  a  new  crisis  of  stiffenings  with  clonic  convulsions,  re- 
sembling at  once  a  crisis  of  strychnine  poisoning,  and  an  attack  of  teta- 
nus.    .     .     Sensibility  is  preserved. 

"  In  lighter  cases,  instead  of  attacks  so  violent  as  this,  one  may  lift  the 
animal  by  one  paw  like  a  piece  of  wood,  as  figure  61  shows.  We  ob- 
serve disordered  movements  and  local  convulsions,"  etc. 


19 

"Finally,  as  regards  anaesthetics,  it  is  needful  that  the  reader  should 
dispel  from  his  mind  all  illusion  on  the  subject.  No  defence  of  Vivi- 
section is  so  frequently  offered  and  so  generally  accepted  as  the  assertion 
that,  in  the  vast  majority  of  experiments,  the  animals  are  rendered 
wholly  insensible  to  pain  by  means  of  anaesthetics.  Persons  who  shrink 
from  the  miserable  subject  naturally  seize  on  this  assurance  with  relief, 
and  thenceforth  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  advocates  of  the  suppression  of 
the  practice.     What  is  the  truth  of  the  case? 

"  There  are  to  be  considered  :  1st.  Real  anaesthetics  (chloroform,  ether, 
nitrous  oxide,  etc.).  2d.  Narcotics  (opium,  chloral,  etc.).  od.  Mock 
anaesthetics  (Curare).   *   * 

"  Of  the  third  alternative,  the  Mock  Anaesthetic,  Curare.  Here 
again  Dr.  Hoggan  bears  testimony  : — 

"  If  there  be  anything  reliable  in  the  results  obtained  by  experimental  physi- 
ology, it  is  the  ingeniously  ascertained  effects  of  Curare.  Could  these  now  be 
disproved,  it  would  establish  the  truth  of  the  sneer  so  often  heard,  '  that  Vivi- 
section only  requires  to  prove  a  thing,  in  order  that  fresh  hecatombs  of  animals 
be  tortured  to  disprove  it.' 

"  Claude  Bernard,  the  greatest  authority  upon,  as  he  is  the  greatest  discoverer 
of,  the  effects  of  Curare,  says  of  it  in  Revue  Scientifique  for  1871-2,  p.  892 : 
'  Curare  acting  on  the  nervous  system  only  suppresses  the  action  of  the  motor 
nerves,  leaving  sensation  intact.  Curare  is  not  an  anaesthetic.'  Vol.  vi,  p.  591 : 
'  Curare  renders  all  movement  impossible,  but  it  does  not  hinder  the  animal 
from  suffering  and  from  being  conscious  of  pain.'  These  opinions  of  his  are 
to  be  found  repeated  twenty  times  in  the  same  work,  in  which  he  also  mentions 
that  they  were  proved  on  a  human  patient,  operated  upon  under  the  influence 
of  Curare,  who  was  quite  sensible  throughout,  and  suffering  frightful  pain.  Even 
in  his  latest  remarks  on  the  same  subject  (vol.  1874-75,  p.  1117)  he  refers  to 
experiments  where  the  patients  on  their  recovery  had  been  able  to  relate  '  that 
during  paralysis  they  had  been  fully  aware  of  their  existence,  and  of  all  that 
happened  around  them.'  Vulpian  also,  the  next  best  authority,  says  in  the 
latest  work :  'Legons  sur  Vappareil  locomoteur,'  Paris,  1875,  p.  660:  'Curare 
does  not  act  on  the  sensory  nerves,  or,  at  least,  does  not  abolish  their  func- 
tion.' " 

"  Again,  Claude  Bernard,  in  his  classic  paper  '  On  Curare,'  in  the 
Revue  de  Deux  Mondes  for  September,  1861,  after  quoting  the  opinion  of 
travelers,  and  more  especially  of  Waterton,  says  (p.  173) : — 

"  Thus  all  their  descriptions  offer  us  a  pleasant  and  tranquil  picture  of  death 
by  Curare.  A  gentle  sleep  seems  to  occupy  the  transition  from  life  to  death. 
But  it  is  nothing  of  the  sort ;  the  external  appearances  are  deceitful.  In  this 
paper  it  will  be  our  duty  to  point  out  how  much  we  may  be  in  error  relative  to 
the  interpretation  of  natural  phenomena  where  science  has  not  taught  us  the 


20 

cause  and  unveiled  the  mechanism.  If,  in  fact,  we  pursue  the  essential  part  of 
our  subject  by  means  of  experiments  into  the  organic  analysis  of  vital  extinc- 
tion, we  discover  that  this  death,  which  appears  to  steal  on  in  so  gentle  a  man- 
ner and  so  exempt  from  pain,  is,  on  the  contrary,  accompanied  by  the  most 
atrocious  sufferings  that  the  imagination  of  man  can  conceive  (and  ante,  p.  162). 
In  this  motionless  body,  behind  that  glazing  eye,  and  with  all  the  appearance 
of  death,  sensitiveness  and  intelligence  persist  in  their  entirety.  The  corpse 
before  us  hears  and  distinguishes  all  that  is  done  around  it.  It  suffers  when 
pinched  or  irritated ;  in  a  word,  it  has  still  consciousness  and  volition,  but  it 
has  lost  the  instruments  which  serve  to  manifest  them." 


"  We  next  reach  one  of  the  many  instruments  in  use  (this  is  Schwann's) 
for  sustaining  Artificial  Respiration.  It  is  to  be  understood  that  when 
an  animahis  curarized  the  muscles  are  so  completely  paralyzed  that  it 
ceases  to  breathe,  and  would  immediately  die  were  not  artificial  breath- 
ing kept  up  by  pumping  air  into  the  lungs.  This  is  sometimes  done  by 
hand,  but  in  large  laboratories  it  is  customary  to  keep  a  water-engine  or 
steam-engine  at  work  for  the  purpose.  In  Ludwig's  laboratory  it  has 
been  stated  that  the  engine  in  question  never  ceases  playing  day  or 
night,  sustaining  life  in  the  dogs  and  other  animals  extended  on  the 
vivisecting  tables  around." 


21 


Instrument  for  producing  artificial  respiration. — From'Bernard's  Physiologie  Operatoire. 


DOES  VIVISECTION    PAY? 

BY 

ALBERT  LEFFINGWELL,  M.D. 

EXTRACT. 

Not  long  ago,  in  a  certain  medical  college  in  the  State  of  New  York, 
I  saw  what  Doctor  Sharpey,  for  thirty  years  the  professor  of  physiology 
in  the  University  Medical  College,  London,  once  characterized  by  anti- 
thesis as  "  Magendie's  in-famous  experiment,"  it  having  been  first  per- 
formed by  that  eminent  physiologist.  It  was  designed  to  prove  that  the 
stomach,  although  supplied  with  muscular  coats,  is,  during  the  act  of 
vomiting,  for  the  most  part  passive.  *  *  Long  before  the  con- 
clusion of  the  experiment  the  animal  became  conscious,  and  its  cries  of 
suffering  were  exceedingly  painful  to  hear.  Now,  granting  that  this 
experiment  impressed  an  abstract  scientific  fact  upon  the  memories  of 
all  who  saw  it,  nevertheless  it  remains  significantly  true  that  the  fact 
thus  demonstrated  had  no  conceivable  relation  to  the  treatment  of  dis- 
ease. It  is  not  to-day  regarded  as  conclusive  of  the  theory  which,  after 
nearly  two  hundred  repetitions  of  his  experiment,  was  doubtless  con- 
sidered by  Magendie  as  established  beyond  question.  Doctor  Sharpey, 
a  strong  advocate  of  vivisection,  by  the  way,  condemned  it  as  a  per- 
fectly unjustifiable  experiment,  since,  "besides  its  atrocity,  it  was 
really  purposeless."  Was  this  repetition  of  the  experiment  which  I 
have  described  worth  its  cost  ?     Was  the  gain  worth  the  pain  ?      *      * 

Every  medical  student  in  New  York  knows  that  experiments 
involving  pain  are  repeatedly  performed  to  illustrate  teaching.  It  is  no 
secret;  one  need  not  go  beyond  the  frank  admissions  of  our  later  text- 
books on  physiology  for  abundant  proof,  not  only  of  this,  but  of  the 
extent  to  which  experimentation  is  now  carried  in  this  country.  "We 
have  long  been  in  the  habit,  in  class  demonstrations,  of  removing  the 
optic  lobe  on  one  side  from  a  pigeon,"  says  Professor  Flint,  of  Believue 
Hospital  Medical  College,  in  his  excellent  work  on  Physiology.*  "  The 
experiment  of  dividing  the  sympathetic  in  the  neck,  especially  in  rab- 
bits, is  so  easily  performed  that  the  phenomena  observed  by  Bernard 
and  Brown-Sequard  have  been  repeatedly  verified.  We  have  often  done 
this  in  class  demonstrations.'"  t  "  The  cerebral  lobes  were  removed  from 
a  young  pigeon  in  the  usual  way,  an  operation  *  *  which  we  practice 
yearly  as  a  class  demonstration.''''  X  Claude  Bernard  was  the  first  to  suc- 
ceed in  following  the  spinal  accessory  nerve  back  to  the  jugular  fora- 
men, seizing  it  here  with  a  strong  pair  of  forceps,  and  drawing  it  out  by 
the  roots.  This  experiment  is  practiced  in  our  own  country.  "  We  have 
found  this  result  (loss  of  voice)  to  follow  in  the  cat  after  the  spinal  ac- 
cessory nerves  have  been  torn  out  by  the  roots,"  says  Professor  John  C. 
Dal  ton,  in  his  treatise  on  Human  Physiology.  §  "This  operation  is 
difficult,'"  writes  Professor  Flint,  "  but  we  have  several  times  performed 
it  with  entire  success  ;  "  ||  and  his  assistant  at  Believue  Medical  College 
has  succeeded  "  in  extirpating  these  nerves  for  class  demonstrations." 

*A  Text-book  of  Human  Physiology,  designed  for  the  use  of  Practitioners  and  Students  of 
Medicine,  by  Austin  Flint,  Jr.,  m.d.     D.  Apnletou  &  Co.    New  York :  1876  (page  722). 
fPage  738.  %  Page  585.  §  Page  489.  ||  Page  629. 

22 


23 

In  withdrawal  of  blood  from  the  hepatic  veins  of  a  dog,  "avoiding  the 
administration  of  an  anaesthetic  "  is  one  of  the  steps  recommended.* 
The  curious  experiment  of  Bernard,  in  which  artificial  diabetes  is  pro- 
duced by  irritating  the  floor  of  the  fourth  ventricle  of  the  brain,  is  care- 
fully described,  and  illustrations  afforded  both  of  the  instrument  and  the 
animal  undergoing  the  operation. 

There  is  one  experiment  in  regard  to  which  the  severe  characteriza- 
tion of  English  scientists  is  especially  applicable,  from  the  pain  neces- 
sarily attending  it.  Numerous  investigators  have  long  established  the 
fact  that  the  great  sensory  nerve  of  the  head  and  face  is  endowed  with 
an  exquisite  degree  of  sensibility.  More  than  half  a  century  ago,  both 
Magendie  and  Sir  Charles  Bell  pointed  out  that  merely  exposing  and 
touching  this  fifth  nerve  gave  signs  of  most  acute  pain.  "All  who  have 
divided  this  root  in  living  animals  must  have  recognized,  not  only  that 
it  is  sensitive,  but  that  its  sensibility  is  far  more  acute  than  that  of  any 
other  nervous  trunk  in  the  body.t  "The  fifth  pair,"  says  Professor 
John  C.  Dalton,  "is  the  most  acutely  sensitive  nerve  in  the  whole 
body.  Its  irritation  by  mechanical  means  always  causes  intense  pain. 
and  even  though  the  animal  be  nearly  unconscious  from  the  influence  of 
ether,  any  severe  injury  to  its  large  root  is  almost  invariably  followed 
by  cries."  X  Testimony  on  this  point  is  uniform  and  abundant.  If 
science  speaks  anywhere  with  assurance,  it  is  in  regard  to  the  properties 
of  this  nerve.  Yet  every  year  the  experiment  is  repeated  before  medi- 
cal classes,  simply  to  demonstrate  accepted  facts.  "This  is  an  opera- 
tion," says  Professor  Flint,  referring  to  the  division  of  this  nerve,  "  that 
we  have  frequently  performed  with  success."  He  adds  that  "it  is  diffi- 
cult from  the  fact  that  one  is  working  in  the  dark,  and  it  requires  a  certain 
amount  of  dexterity,  to  be  acquired  only  by  practice.''''  *  *  This  is  one 
of  Magendie's  celebrated  experiments;  perhaps  the  reader  fancies  that 
in  its  modern  repetitions  the  animal  suffers  nothing,  being  rendered 
insensible  by  anaesthetics?  uIt  is  much  more  satisfactory  to  divide  the 
nerve  without  etherizing  the  animal,  as  the  evidence  of  pain  is  an  important 
guide  in  this  delicate  operation."  Anaesthetics,  however,  are  sometimes 
used,  but  not  so  as  wholly  to  overcome  the  pain. 

Testimony  of  individuals,  indicating  the  extent  to  which  vivisection 
is  at  present  practiced  in  this  State  might  be  given  ;  but  it  seems  better 
to  submit  proof  within  the  reach  of  every  reader,  and  the  accuracy  of 
which  is  beyond  cavil.  No  legal  restrictions  whatever  exist,  preventing 
the  performance  of  any  experiment  desired.  Indeed,  I  think  it  may 
safely  be  asserted  that,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  in  a  single  medical 
school,  more  pain  is  inflicted  upon  living  animals  as  a  means  of  teaching 
well-known  facts,  than  is  permitted  to  be  done  for  the  same  purpose  in 
all  the  medical  schools  of  Great  Britian  and  Ireland.  And  cui  bono? 
"I  can  truly  say,"  writes  a  physician  who  has  seen  all  these  experi- 
ments, "  that  not  only  have  I  never  seen  any  results  at  all  commensurate 
with  the  suffering  inflicted,  but  I  cannot  recall  a  single  experiment  which, 
in  the  slightest  degree,  has  increased  my  ability  to  relieve  pain,  or  in 
any  way  fitted  me  to  cope  better  with  disease." 

— Scribner^s  Magazine,  Jidy,  1880. 

*Flint :  "  Text-book  of  Human  Physiology"  (page  463). 
tPage  641.  I  Dalton's  "  Human  Physiology,"  (page  466). 


DUKE    MEDj    CENTER    LIS. 
HISTORICAL    COLLECTION 


